Outsourced DPO (Data Protection Officer) Services
The DPO Centre’s outsourced Data Protection Officer service delivers flexible, tailored data protection support, advice and expertise to your organisation.
Find out how we can help your organisation today.
DPO as a Service
While a DPO doesn’t have to be a full-time role, it does require specialist data protection expertise. Having access to an experienced and knowledgeable outsourced DPO is a cost-effective solution for improving information security and compliance with data protection laws, such as the GDPR. Failing to protect personal data can not only lead to significant financial penalties from regulators (such as the UK’s ICO), but also risks reputational damage to your organisation. By following tested and established best practices, an outsourced DPO helps to protect the data your organisation processes on your customers, suppliers and employees keep your organisation informed and advised about data protection and where necessary, cooperate with regulators on your behalf.
Why you should use a Data Protection Officer from the DPO Centre
Our outsource service provides you with a highly experienced Data Protection Officer (DPO) who works on your site or remotely as an integral member of your team.
You benefit from a knowledgeable, hands-on data protection professional who undertakes the DPO’s responsibilities in an extremely cost-effective way, and is backed by the support, shared best practice and model documentation developed from the DPO Centre’s experience of working with over 600 organisations.
“We’ve built a strong ethos of data protection throughout the entire organisation and having a highly knowledgeable outsourced DPO from the DPO Centre has been integral to enabling us to achieve this. Our DPO has been able to advise on a wide range of legislative changes and how we should manage our fundraising activities whilst still protecting our donors’ privacy and their new rights under data protection law.”
Emma Fuller
NSPCC
“The response time to queries has been spot on throughout our time with The DPO Centre and the quality of the responses has been spot on. Our DPO from the DPO Centre is an asset to our team.”
Foreign Exchange Services company
“I became acquainted with The DPO Centre through one of their Data Protection Officers (DPO) who acts as outside DPO for one of our US-based clients. We were negotiating a DPA for a unique trial his client is conducting in the EU which utilizes my company’s mobile research services. The DPO I had the pleasure of working with on that project is one of the best DPO/counsels I have worked with when it came to thoughtfully negotiating through a clinical trials-DPA, given his great knowledge of the GDPR and the crossover with clinical trials regulations in both EU & UK. He’s also just a solid, nice person, and I have greatly enjoyed and am very grateful to have him across the table to get the trials up and running.”
Jenifer McIntosh
Professional Case Management
HOW DOES A DPO AS A SERVICE WORK?
Unlike other outsourced providers, our DPOs work with you, either at your offices or remotely, as an integral member of your team. They become immersed in your culture and take a proactive, rather than reactive approach to your requirements.
Account Management
Your DPO’s activities are monitored and managed by The DPO Centre’s experienced project delivery team, so do not consume the time or distract the attention of your management team.
Client Services
The quality of the service we deliver is also monitored by our Head of Client Services, therefore providing the oversight necessary to ensure we always deliver an appropriate, structured, co-ordinated and quality-driven service.
Representing one of the key values of outsourcing, this therefore removes the overhead, risks and distractions that would otherwise be experienced by your internal resources, leaving them free to focus their efforts on developing your organisation further.
Schedule of Works
Our DPOs follow a tried-and-tested range of duties from a Schedule of Works that has been developed through working with our wide-range of clients. Each element of the Schedule of Works links back to the 7 principles of the GDPR, meaning we can clearly demonstrate and regularly report on where compliance levels improve and how risk is evolving and reducing over time.
Model Documentation
Engaging with The DPO Centre means you benefit from access to our constantly evolving and improving central pool of processes and proven model documentation. This means your assigned DPO makes use of tried and tested documentation and spends only the time necessary to tailor them to your requirements, rather than having to research and create them from scratch.
Primary and Secondary DPOs
When delivering an outsourced DPO service, The DPO Centre assigns both a primary and secondary DPO. Both will be involved in your initial onboarding process, meaning two DPOs remain familiar with your organisation, stakeholders and data landscape.
Your primary DPO takes responsibility for the role within the resource level agreed, but at no additional cost, the secondary DPO remains available to step in to cover any period of absence or to replace your primary DPO should it ever be required, therefore ensuring the delivery of a seamless service and removing the distraction, cost and inconvenience of ever needing to onboard a replacement DPO.
Expert Advice Line
The third tier of our ‘continuous support framework’ is our advice line service. The advice line provides you with access to our wider data protection officer team on the remaining days of the month where your nominated DPO is not specifically assigned to you or is unavailable, therefore providing you with a cost-effective, full, month-round service.
The advice line acts like a ‘concierge service’ that ensures you are provided with answers to your questions directly, or where specific knowledge of your organisation or processing activities is required, they are escalated to your DPOs for a more detailed or personal response. Most importantly however, the problem is now ours to solve, not yours.
Large Data Protection Team
Your DPO will be drawn from a team of permanently employed DPOs, in fact, one of the largest DPO teams available, so they benefit from being able to consult with and draw knowledge from their colleagues such that any interpretations of law and decisions made are derived from a far wider and greater faceted knowledge base.
Being part of a wider team also means that additional resources and specific expertise can be brought in as and when required.
Knowledge & Expertise
The DPO Centre has provided data protection related services to over 700 clients from a wide variety of sectors. This means our team draws upon a breadth of knowledge far deeper than would be possible for a smaller, less experienced team to acquire and maintain.
Benefits of Data Protection Officer Outsourcing
Fundamentally, we believe that when combined, the many benefits outlined above demonstrate the true value of outsourcing and therefore ensures that the DPO Centre provides far greater value for this key role than is possible from a smaller team, a single independent contractor or an internal employee.
As an operating expense, you pay only for the time from your DPO that you use, and you never need to meet the cost of ongoing training, benefits packages, absence, holidays or sickness, and you avoid all employment liabilities.
The DPO Centre also has knowledge of numerous data protection and cyber security platforms, tools, vendors and software solutions, so provides informed guidance, reduced decision time and improved choice.
Data Protection Services for Sectors
Compliance with data protection laws is a necessity for all sectors. However, each sector has its own specific issues, market expectations, additional industry specific compliance requirements and varying appetites towards risk.
The DPO Centre provides you with immediate access to Subject Matter Experts and a broadly experienced team of data protection professionals, and therefore peace of mind that you are working with one of the largest, most established data protection providers available.
Whether you are within healthcare, tech, retail, eCommerce, finance, insurance, education or a not-for-profit, the breadth of knowledge within our team ensures we deliver the specific sector experience you require, and therefore cater for your unique obligations, commitments and needs.
Richard Green
Egress Software Technologies Ltd
“We’re in such a strong position with our GDPR compliance thanks to the DPO Centre. For us GDPR compliance is not only a matter of legality, it’s imperative for business continuity and development.”
Anita Gordhan,
Clinisupplies
“Since engaging The DPO Centre’s services, we feel at ease knowing that we have really good support from our outsourced DPO. Their advice and support has already greatly helped to drive our compliance forward and we are confident that this progress will continue on into the future.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
We’ve compiled a series of FAQs but if you can’t find the answer here please contact us to find out more.
By EU and UK law, organisations that are a public body , process data on a large scale, or use personal data to regularly and systematically monitor individuals must designate a DPO.
For more information, read our guide about Do I need a DPO?.
DPO informs and advises your organisation on data protection and sharing, oversees risk processes, manages communication with the ICO, reviews and updates policies, and ensures individuals can exercise their rights concerning data processing.
An outsourced DPO is a highly knowledgeable, cost-effective solution for organisations that require straightforward, pragmatic, and solution-driven advice. A third-party DPO ensures you get the expertise you need and avoids any issues around conflict of interest.
The pricing model for an outsourced DPO depends on the complexity of your data landscape and the specific needs of your organisation. Our cost-effective, experienced designated Data Protection Officers can work on-site or remotely with your team and save you time, reduce your compliance risks and improve your clients’ and customers’ trust and levels of engagement. Contact us to find out how we can help you.
The fundamental role of a DPO is to help ensure your organisation’s compliance with data protection laws such as the GDPR. All of the DPOs from our large team are GDPR experts, so can assist you directly to implement an appropriate compliance framework and therefore improve your organisation’s compliance with the GDPR.